Russia takes aim at urban areas as airborne troops land in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv

Gulf Today Report

Russian airborne troops landed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, the Ukrainian army said, adding that there were immediate clashes.

"Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv... and attacked a local hospital," the army said in a statement on messaging app Telegram. "There is an ongoing fight between the invaders and the Ukrainians."

Kharkiv, a largely Russian-speaking city near the Russian border, has a population of around 1.4 million.

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"Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed after Tuesday's bloodshed on the central square in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, and the deadly bombing of a TV tower in the capital. He pronounced the attack on the square as "frank, undisguised terror” and a war crime.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a press conference. File photo

Ukraine’s leader decried Russia's escalation of attacks on crowded urban areas as a blatant campaign of terror, while US President Joe Biden warned that if his Russian counterpart weren’t made to "pay a price” for the invasion, the aggression wouldn’t stop with one country.

Biden used his first State of the Union address to highlight the resolve of a reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and adopt tough sanctions, which he said have left Russian President Vladimir Putin ”isolated in the world more than he has ever been.”

"Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson - when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” Biden said. "They keep moving. And the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising.”

Biden devoted the first 12 minutes of his Tuesday evening address to Ukraine, with lawmakers of both parties repeatedly rising to their feet and applauding as he praised the bravery of Ukraine’s people and condemned Putin’s assault. 

This handout photo shows Russian aircraft on the ground at Luninets Airbase, Belarus, on Tuesday. AFP

It has been a target for Russian forces since President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine last Thursday.

In Kherson on the Black Sea, where officials had on Tuesday reported Russian checkpoints encircling the city, Russian forces took control of the railway station and the port overnight, city mayor Igor Kolykhayev was quoted by local media.

In Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, more than a hundred people were injured on Tuesday in Russian fire, the mayor of the city, Vadym Boychenko was quoted as saying by Ukrainian media.

In Borodyanka, 50 kilometres from Kyiv, Russian airstrikes destroyed two residential buildings on Tuesday, according to Ukraine's deputy minister of foreign affairs Emine Dzhaparova, who shared a video of the grey buildings partially in ruins, with apartments in flames.